Ezekiel 27:13

Eze 27:13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they [were] thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.

Ver. 13. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech,] i.e., Grecians, Spaniards, and Muscovites or Cappadocians, who were naturally of a servile disposition: they were anciently called Meschines, saith Josephus, {a} of Meshech, the son of Japhet. {Gen 10:2}

They traded the persons of men,] i.e., They bought and sold slaves, as now they do in Turkey.

{a} Lib. i. cap. 6.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27:13-14 Tubal, Meshech, and neighboring Beth-togarmah were regions in Anatolia (modern Turkey).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

By selling slaves.

Of Greece, Italy and Cappadocia.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Javan--the Ionians or Greeks: for the Ionians of Asia Minor were the first Greeks with whom the Asiatics came in contact.

Tubal . . . Meshech--the Tibareni and Moschi, in the mountain region between the Black and Caspian Seas.

persons of men--that is, as slaves. So the Turkish harems are supplied with female slaves from Circassia and Georgia.

vessels--all kinds of articles. Superior weapons are still manufactured in the Caucasus region.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 13. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech] The Ionians, the Tybarenians, and the Cappadocians, or Muscovites.

They traded the persons of men] That is, they trafficked in slaves. The bodies and souls of men were bought and sold in those days, as in our degenerate age. With these also they traded in brazen vessels.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(13) Javan, Tubal, and Meshech.—Javan is strictly Ionia, more generally Greece. Tubal and Meshech are the classic Tibareni and Moschi, between the Black and Caspian Seas. They were famous for dealing in slaves and in brass, or rather copper, of which their mountains still contain abundant supplies.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. These three countries, Javan, Tubal and Meshech are usually named together, Gen_10:2; Eze_32:26; Eze_38:2; Eze_39:1; Isa_66:19. The first is the Ionians, the Greeks of Asia Minor, and the two last have usually been identified with the Moschi and Tibareni, lying to the S. and S.E. of the Black Sea. Copper and “souls of men” i.e. slaves, form the contribution of these countries. That Javan traded in slaves appears from Joel 4:6; cf. Amo_1:6; Amo_1:9.

they traded … in thy market] they brought as thy wares souls of men, &c. The nations are the servants of Tyre, and what they bring is her wares.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They of the house of Togarmah,.... The Targum is,

"they of the province or country of Germany.''

Jerom understands it of Phrygia, near to which was Cappadocia; and perhaps is here meant, since it abounded with what these people are said to trade with Tyre in:

these traded in thy fairs with horses, horsemen, and mules; for the Cappadocians paid for their yearly tribute to the Persians fifteen hundred horses, and two thousand mules, as Bochart (c) from Strabo observes; and as they sold horses and mules to the Tyrians, so likewise horsemen, men that were skilled in riding and taking care of horses; and these were sold along with the horses, as servants for that purpose.

(c) Phaleg. c. 11. col. 178.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Slaves. Those from Greece were much esteemed. (Calmet) --- Alas! thirty thousand Tyrians were themselves thus sold by Alexander [the Great]! (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Javan; the Grecians, particularly the Ionians. Tubal; the Asiatic Iberians, &c.; the Albanians toward the Caspian Sea.

Meshech; the Cappadocians, with the Moschi, who dwelt about Cholcis, the country now called Mingrelia.

Traded the persons of men; brought men to sell for slaves, so the Greeks did; the (Mancipia Ionica) Ionian slaves were known and valued in the East, especially the handsome girls to wait on great ladies. The too great desire hereof in Atossa, Darius’s queen, is said to be the chief cause of his war on Greece. And as to the other, beside their senile inclinations, they were so barbarous and inhuman, and had opportunities to seize men, women, and children to sell them, that no doubt the market of Tyre was full of them.

Brass; of which metal there was great store, they say, in Cappadocia and Iberia, which they brought with them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech — Javan, brother of Tarshish (Gen_10:2), is the well-known name for Ionian or Greek. The Tel-el-Amarna tablets, 1400 B.C., mention a Yivana who had been sent on a mission to Tyre by the Egyptian king. Cyprus was called the “island of the Ionians” by the Assyrians, and Sayce thinks Cyprus is meant when Javan is referred to by Ezekiel (Races, p. 46. For extent and character of the early Greek commerce see Introduction to Daniel, III, 2.) It is possible, however, that at this period the name had a wider application, being perhaps a racial term, which was beginning to be specifically used of the Greeks of the mainland. Tubal and Meshech are generally mentioned together in the Scriptures (Eze_32:26; Eze_38:2; Eze_39:1), and appear in the Assyrian inscriptions as Tabali, Tubla, and Muska. They were famous as archers and were probably located in the interior of Asia Minor on the coast of the Black Sea. Professor Smith says: “Beyond Yavan were the coasts of Elisha, that was perhaps Sicily, and Tarshish, the great Phoenician colony in Spain. To all of these ships traded from Tyre and Sidon and Accho and Joppa. Their outward cargoes were Syrian wheat, oil, balm, with oriental wares, and they brought back cloth, purple and scarlet, silver, iron, tin, lead, and brass. Sometimes they carried west Hebrew slaves (Amo_1:9; Joel 4:6) and outlaws (Jon_1:3), forerunners of the great Dispersion” (Historical Geography, p. 136).

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Javan father of Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim, and son of Japheth, (Gen_10:2, Gen_10:4) stands generically for Greece, and probably represents Ionia. Tubal and Meshech are sons of Japheth in Gen_10:2, and are always grouped together, except in Psa_120:5, where Meshech appears alone, and in Isa_66:19, where Tubal is named, but not Meshech. In Eze_32:26 they are associated with Elam and Asshur (Assyria) in Eze_38:2, 3 and Eze_39:1 with Gog. The two names probably represented the tribes on the southeast coast of the Black Sea. Here the chief traffic was in slaves, the Tyrian traders probably buying them in exchange for their manufactured goods, and selling them to the cities of Greece as well as Phoenicia. In Greek history the names appear as Tibaroni and Moschi (Herod., 3:94; Xenophon, "Anab.," 5:5. 2, etal.). In Joe 3 Tyriaus are represented as selling Israelites as slaves in Greek cities (Hebrew "sons of Javan"). Thrace and Scythia were at all times the chief countries from which Greece imported her slaves. Vessels of brass. Here, as throughout the Old Testament, we should read "copper," the mixed metal which we know as "brass" not Being known to ancient metallurgy. Copper-mines were found near the Caucasus, and Euboea was also famous for them. The region was also noted for its iron.

The slave-trade.

Among the wares that the Phoenicians imported into Asia were Greek slaves. "With the persons of men did they trade for thy wares" from Javan and elsewhere. Thus early have we a picture of that hideous traffic in human flesh which is desolating the continent of Africa in our own day.

I THE SLAVE-TRADE IS CARRIED ON TO A TREMENDOUS EXTENT. This is no small evil. Every traveler into the interior of Africa writes of its wide prevalence; Whole provinces, vast regions as big as European kingdoms, are completely wrecked and depopulated. We are here face to face with one of the most gigantic evils of the human race.

II THE SLAVE-TRADE IS DIABOLICALLY CRUEL. There is cruelty in the very seizing of innocent human beings, depriving them of their liberty, tearing them from their families, driving them from their native villages, and exporting them to foreign countries, there to live in perpetual bondage. But, the manner in which this process is carried out aggravates the cruelty of it immensely. No proper provision is made for the transport of great companies of men, women, and children through vast regions of African forest to the coast, and thence by sea to their destination. By far the larger portion of the stolen victims perish on the way, after suffering piteously.

III THE SLAVE-TRADE IS AN OUTRAGE ON HUMANITY. All slaves are our fellow-men. The Greek slaves of antiquity were higher in race than their captors. But we have no reason to believe that they were treated so cruelly as the African slaves are treated by the Arabs. The modern slaves are lower in civilization than their captors they cannot Be lower in morals. But it is the more shameful that a powerful people should oppress these children of nature. They are human, and God "hath made of one blood all nations of men". (Act_17:26) Mankind is insulted in the person of the slaves and degraded to the level of devilry in that of their hunters.

IV THE SLAVE-TRADE IS A WRONG IN THE SIGHT OF HEAVEN. The notion that the Arabs are civilizing Africa, and even preparing for Christianity by leading the native people out of their heathen darkness to the belief in one God and the higher life of Mohammedanism, is not encouraged by the reports of those who have witnessed what is happening on the spot. On the contrary, the enforced conversion of whole tribes who are terrorized by the slave-hunters cannot mean any real advance in religion, while the awful wickedness of the trade carried on by these Mohammedan missionaries is one of the greatest sins in the sight of God.

V THE SLAVE-TRADE MUST BE STOPPED. NO crusade could be more needed or more blessed in its result than one that was wisely directed for the suppression of this curse of Africa. Christianity is the inspiration of philanthropy. Christ infuses an enthusiasm of humanity in his true followers. Christians should not rest till they have done all that in them lies to suppress the vile, cruel slave-trade.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Javan - The Grecians, particularly the Ionians. Tubal - The Asiatic Iberians, and the Albanians toward the Caspian sea. Meshech - The Cappadocians. They traded - Brought men to sell for slaves.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

with living people male and female slaves to sell.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.